Homework Language Trainer

Homework Driller Version History: (2006 completed)

Version History:

(1 September 2002) Beta 4e Released.
Minor fix for Delphi bug (rotary control on unit selector). Unfortunately, The program seems to be pretty stable and doing all the right things. Final release around the end of the year. I've also started using NJStar's Chinese viewer and Chinese PEN to enable entry and display of characters (zi). For more information on these excellent Chinese word processing programs, go to NJstar's Web Site.

This beta expires 1st December 2002. (I'll post an update here, before then). Beta 4e update for existing users: Download here and unzip this file and just overwrite the previously installed file homework.exe. Your existing word lists will not be affected.

Note: If you re-install the full package at bottom, you WILL overwrite your data files. New users see the installation procedure at bottom.

(19 April 2002) Beta 4b Released.
Some more minor bug fixes. Random word function implemented and UI/editor tidy-up. Dynamically detect presence of Pinyin editor (if used).

(11 February 2002) Fixed typo in original 8e/8p.txt data files. This was not a bug in the program but a line count mismatch introduced before the editor was implemented. The program is still the same as below.
Download the corrected data files Here. Unzip and overwrite the old files.

[Language Homework Trainer, © Dr C. Martinic, 2002-2005]

OS/2 users need the Odin API from http://www.netlabs.org

Installation Notes:

We use the trainer with Chinese but the trainer will work with any language. Strictly speaking, any font can be used but you will need to use the pinyin fonts below if you are learning Asian languages with tonal accents and don't have operating system support for double-byte character sets (XP has such support and an input method editor).

For non-double byte supported systems, the entry of Chinese characters can done with NJStar's Chinese Pen, or Communicator program and the ability to read them back with NJStar's Chinese CJK Viewer at NJstar's Web Site.

This is a rote language trainer that drills both ways, backwards and forwards. There are some minor issues (see known issues below).

An installation program will be forthcoming in the final release but in the interim, the following manual procedure can be used.

For operating systems with no Asian (or otherwise) double-byte character support:

The following has to be done in order.

1. Unzip and install the free pinyin editor in contained in pinyined.zip (Euroasiasoftware's site below).

http://www.euroasiasoftware.com

Just use the default directories.

They also have an excellent (and free) pinyin/zi character bidirectional dictionary as a learning supplement.

2. Unzip and install the pinyin fonts in pinyin-r.zip (Rich's web site below). You can install them by dragging them on to the fonts folder in the control panel. You won't see anything meaningful (pinyin-wise) unless the fonts are installed.

These fonts are Rich's free pinyin fonts from;

http://www.richd.com

Once installed, you can communicate in pinyin via e-mail as well.

The large number of accents in the pinyin fonts also make them suitable for other languages. You can check them out with the charmap function invoked from the language program's editor screen.

3. Install the Homework Trainer.

Download Homework Trainer Beta 4e (expires 1 December 2002)

Unzip the files contained in homebeta4e.zip into a directory as follows;

c:\hypergate

The directory structure is preferred since a future installation/maintenance program will look for it.

Create a shortcut to 'homework.exe'.

Notes:

The homework trainer can use either the attached pinyin editor or window's 'charmap' program.

The idea is you copy/paste from the pinyin editor into the language trainer's entry fields for pinyin (or mouse-type via charmap) for non-ascii accents. For English, just type normally.

The pinyin editor is really easy to use. For example, the 4 tones are represented by numbers. If you need to type 'hao' with the 3rd tone on the 'a', you type;

ha3o

and the tone will magically appear over the 'a'. You'll get the hang of it pretty swiftly.

Known issues:

1. The buttons appear to be unresponsive during timed auto mode. They actually WILL respond but it will happen at the end of the current timing cycle. In other words, the mouse event queue is not cleared until the completion of the timing cycle. I'll tidy this up with the next beta.

2. The program does not save its current preferences on exit.

3. I don't have a manual yet but the program is pretty self-explanatory.

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